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City Views.178

These views of SF and the greater region are from the take-off ascent when we flew back to Amsterdam two weeks ago. The photos at top and bottom were selected as highlights for two reasons. First, because they both show the atmospheric effect of  heat in the central valley (more than 100km east – right – of what you see here) pulling cool, moist air — aka fog — in from the vast, cold and wet Pacific directly through the Golden Gate (not the bridge, but the small gap in the coastal mountains which the bridge spans) and then inland, following the river that drains the valley then flows into the bay, in the process flowing over both the city of San Francisco, and some of the surrounding cities to the north and east. Second, because they both also show you the lovely north bay and – if I had that degree of resolution – they likely look right over Sonoma Mountain and the other coastal-range mountains to show Santa Rosa, in its little bowl about 65km north of the Golden Gate. FYI, the bridge you do see is the Bay Bridge, its two spans connecting SF with Oakland and the east bay, forming the western terminus of Interstate 80, just as the George Washington Bridge forms its eastern terminus at the Hudson between NYC & NJ. The Golden Gate Bridge, by that particular Monday afternoon, was already well-wrapped in the fog you see :-).

Coasting.48

And then a month later we explored other coastlines on a different ocean 🙂

Coasting.47

I had enough miles to get a cheap night at a nice hotel on the coast south of the Hague, but 20k of them were going to expire end of March. Out of that circumstance came a two days / one night exploring the coast. We found walking the dunes and beach quite invigorating, and the weather was generally conducive.
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City Views.177

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Small Wonders.177

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Woodley Island, part of Eureka’s harbor in Humboldt County, northernmost range of this recent trip

County Views.117

Look closely and you’ll see a snow-capped Snow Mountain peeking above the tops of the closer range of hills around Clear Lake, here in Lake County’s capital city of Lakeport. I’d only once grazed the very southernmost corner of Lake Country, on a wine-tasting trip to a vineyard that straddled both Lake and its more renowned southern neighbor, Napa.
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Small Wonders.176

City Views.176

Bangkok, and me in BKK to remind myself I was actually there at the start of this latest trip. Was too busy in Hong Kong to take any photos worth posting, and in BKK to take more than these on my first evening…such is work travel as opposed to the lovely vacation weeks in CA and TX 🙂

County Views.116

Back to Fort Ross State Historic Park in my old home county of Sonoma. This time we visited during the early stages of a school overnight trip, which added to the fun.

Urban Garden.146

Bernal Hill in the distance, with Garfield Square Park’s soccer field, both as seen from one end of Balmy Alley’s beloved row of murals aka graffiti art, viz my earlier post’s note on the graffiti-to-art continuum :-). The first of several from Balmy Alley. Thanks to Nikos for pulling me here on our last morning in SF.

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I created a tag called “graffiti art” years ago, I think when I visited Melbourne for the Australian Open in 2009. Recent days have given me opportunity to appreciate the differences between graffiti (art) styles in Amsterdam and SF – wait for some of my mural photos taken on my last morning in SF, and also for some I believe I got while I was up Eureka. 🙂

City Views.175

A bit of downtown Austin